Patented: History of Inventions

Often mistakenly called Cryogenics, Cryonics is the speculative practice of preserving and storing recently dead bodies at very low temperatures — all in the hope we may one day be able to bring them back to life. Crucially, the technology to execute that final step, reanimation, doesn't exist. At least not yet. Individuals who sign up to a Cryonics service today are betting on people of the futur...

A whistle stop tour of the 50 year history of video games — and all the innovations along the way, from our TV sets to virtual reality. Why are the roots of gaming in universities and labs? What technology helped gaming spread and grow? How do you explain the console wars of the 1990s? Find out all that and more today on the show with our guest John Wilis, the Director of the Centre of American St...

The drones are coming. In twenty years there’s going to be a hundred times more flying planes, taxis, parcels in the airspace than today thanks to drone technology. Assuming we don't try to stop them first... Today on Patented we're handing over the mic to the incredible Jacob Goldstein (former host of Planet Money) and his new podcast ‘What’s Your Problem?’. Jacob explains the problems that reall...

Today we are talking warships: from the revolutionary Tudor ships to modern aircraft carriers, and all the innovations along the way.  Our guest is History Hit’s own Dan Snow.  Dan, a self-confessed Martime history nerd, gives Dallas a whistle stop tour of nearly 200 years of history — from the rise of wooden warships, to how these feats of engineering were built and how they transformed...

The history of Special Effects — from stop motion to motion capture. In just over a century, we special effects have been subject to rapid innovation. What were the biggest breakthroughs? How did the digital revolution transform the industry? And, what does the future hold? Today on the show, we speak to film historian Julie Turnock who answers all that and more, revealing the biggest technologica...

_CW: This episode is a bit saucier than normal with explicit sexual references and some swearing. If that isn’t your cup of tea or are listening with kids, please check out one of our past episodes instead_.  It is fair to say, Sex Toys aren’t the taboo they once were. The stats show they are incredibly popular — over 52% of women in the US have used vibrator, and many men - 1 in 3 - use them...

The success of the Apollo Missions relied on hugely imaginative engineering. There is perhaps no better example of this than the first off-planet electric car, The Lunar Rover. Today on the show we ask: Why did we send a car to the moon? How did we design something for an environment we knew nothing about? How did we get it up there? Dallas is joined by by Eddie Alterman, the longtime editor at Ca...

As a result of all the military and medical advancements of World War One there were more seriously injured and disfigured soldiers surviving the battlefield than ever before. And so World War One also lead to a huge leap forward in plastic and cosmetic surgery. In this episode Dallas is joined by award winning historian and author Lindsey Fitzharris to talk about the birth of reconstructive surge...

Introduced just over 100 years ago, Daylight Savings have always been divisive. So, why are people for and why are people against — and how have those arguments changed over time? We find out with today's guest, Dr Kristin Hussey - a science historian currently based in Denmark who is working on a book about the history of circadian rhythms. This episode was produced by Emily Whalley. Edited and m...

Chicken, mayonnaise, curry powder - and wait, sultanas? What exactly is Coronation Chicken and what does it have to do with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II? Created by students, beloved by many, how does this iconic sandwich filler fit into British culinary history? In this Jubilee Special, Dallas is joined by food historian Annie Gray to talk all things TV chefs, supermarket sandwiches, and whethe...

A cup of coffee was once a luxury. Now it is quick, cheap and widely available — a daily essential for many. How did this happen? Today on Patented, Jonathan Morris walks us through the evolution of coffee: from how people first figured out its psychoactive properties, to the transformations in roasting, processing and preparation that resulted in a coffee shop on every high street. Listen to the...

“As ancient as time, as modern as tomorrow.’ Why have tattoos been reinvented in so many cultures - and with so many different meanings - throughout history? And yet, tattooing is constantly portrayed as a new ‘thing’, when tattoos were just for criminals or sailors. Far from truth, tattoos and the art of painting ones skin is as old and as fascinating as humankind itself. On this episode we focus...

The telescope marked, arguably, the first invention to truly transform a human sense. For the first time it allowed our eyes to observe the universe beyond the bounds of our Earthly home. But how did this groundbreaking instrument first come about? Today on the show we find out who really invented the telescope (it wasn't Galileo, actually), why it was embraced by some and shunned by others, and e...

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? A UFO maybe? Or is it some reflective Lichen? Where does the idea of an Unidentified Flying Object come from and are they real? Spoiler alert - probably not. In this episode Dallas is joined by journalist and author David Clarke to discuss all things unidentified. From the exact moment the term flying saucer was coined, to two befuddled policeman's interaction with som...

On 17 December 1903 the Wright Brothers successful completed the first manned, controlled and sustained flight in human history. They made it 'just' 120 ft in that first attempt. From there, aeroplane technology took off at a pace. Only 16 years later came the first non-stop transatlantic flight, and just six years after that the first round-the-world flight touched down without stopping. Today we...

Invented in the mid-1800s, bicycles have had enduring popularity. Across cultures, they have been embraced, promising freedom and mobility at a low price point.  Today on the show we are joined by Tim Harford, host of the podcasts Cautionary Tales and The BBC’s 50 Objects That Defined The Modern Economy.  Tim and Dallas discuss the history of the bike, from the invention story through to...

How — and why — did Prozac become the best-selling antidepressant of all time?  As it is Mental Health Awareness Week, we are diving into this fascinating story that speaks to a greater shift in psychiatry and attitudes towards mental health since the invention of the first antidepressants in the 1950s.  We’ll also look at how depression was treated before drugs, types of antidepressants...

How did LSD go from accidental discovery to the counter cultures go to drug? On April 19th 1943 Albert Hoffman had the first ever LSD trip in Basel, Switzerland. He was testing a substance of his own making, that he had initially developed 5 years previously and been thinking about ever since... Today on the show are joined by Tom Shroder, author of Acid Test: Lsd, Ecstasy, and the Power to Heal,...

Staples, paper clips, and washers - small inventions that improve our everyday lives and have even saved lives. In this episode Dallas is joined by author Helen Pilcher to talk about the origins of these tiny, lifer altering inventions and the impact felt still. From the use of ant heads to stop bleeding, paperclips as a symbol of defiance, and the washer helping to win the Battle of Britain - tun...

Many of us became familiar with robots through science fiction — R2D2, C3PO, Rosie from the Jetsons, Marvin the Paranoid Android. In comparison, it can feel like the robots we actually interact with today fall a bit short of this imagined future. In this episode we are joined by Dr Beth Singler, Research Fellow in Artificial Intelligence at Cambridge University, to discuss the invention and evolut...

We put man on the moon before we invented the wheeled suitcase.  Why did it take so long?  Find out in todays episode with guest Katrine Marçal, whose research has revealed a hidden chapter in invention story of rolling luggage.  For more History Hit content, subscribe to our newsletters  here. If you'd like to learn even more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad free...

Tanks defined 20th century conflict — they conjure to mind images of Tiananmen Square or the Soviet Army rolling into a liberated Berlin. But over the past couple of weeks, we have began seeing them again on our TV screens during the current fighting in Ukraine.  Today on Patented, we are joined by war historian James Holland to explore where the idea of the tank came from, how they have been...

Nada, naught, nil, zip, zilch, zero. Whatever you call it, it's hard to imagine the world without it. Zero is the basis for all modern computing and engineering, including trigonometry, algebra, and binary code. So, pretty important. But despite how integral it is to our lives now, there was once a time when zero never existed. Today we are joined by statistician and author Timandra Harkness, who...

In 1890, the man who shot the first ever motion picture boarded a train in Paris — and was never seen again. Shortly after his disappearance, another inventor showcased a camera with uncanny similarities. Is it coincidence or conspiracy? Today on the show we are joined by author and filmmaker Paul Fischer who tells the extraordinary story of Louis Le Prince, his untimely disappearance and the scan...

Before they found their way into gyms, treadmills had a much darker history. In the 19th Century, they could most commonly be found in prisons.  In contrast to their modern track record of improving health, the Victorians saw treadmills as a way to explicitly inflict pain and punishment. A tool for ‘grinding men good’ through gruelling hours of physical activity.  What were the moral rat...